


reality

by awgeezitsthetoiletnator



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Day 1, Dipifica - Freeform, Dippica Week, F/M, Gen, dippica - Freeform, dippica week 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 09:16:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7216567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awgeezitsthetoiletnator/pseuds/awgeezitsthetoiletnator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a one-shot set in an x-files au. submission for day 1 of dippica week 2016.</p>
            </blockquote>





	reality

**Author's Note:**

> background: mabel disappeared through the portal during the events of nwhs, and dipper was sent home the next day. none of the events that took place afterwards in the series ever happened. the other two journals went missing after the incident and dipper still hasn't forgiven stan. in this universe, the x-files mostly revolve around gravity falls, where our two agents set up shop.

He never knows when to quit.

That was Pacifica Northwest's only complaint when her friends back in D.C. prodded her for information on 'Spooky Pines'. She tells them that her partner is never able to accept defeat, and it usually shuts them up. Northwest knows they're masking their worry about her in humor, and she might have done the same if she were in their shoes. But after spending six months with "Spooky Pines", she's become accustomed to his ways. She's become accustomed to him.

Northwest looks up from her research for the first time in what feels like hours, but nothing has changed. Pines is still curled up in the giant yellow recliner across the room, poring over his maroon journal. He mouths a few words to himself in between short periods of chewing on his pen, which she has learned means that he's deciphering a passage. From where she's sitting, Pines looks very small, almost like the twelve year-old she'd met all those years ago.

When Northwest learned that Dipper Pines had requested that she join his department, she'd been... confused. Her last coherent memory of him had been when she'd competed against his sister in a mini-golf competition. Pines had been there, shooting her dirty looks across the green and cheering on his sister. She'd also recalled something about... little people? There'd been flashing images of another night as well - Pines in a tux, blood dripping from the maws of her father's taxidermied prizes, a forest full of people. She'd tried to brush them off as parts of a feverish nightmare - the only reasonable explanation - but they'd left a pit in her stomach she hadn't been able to explain. Over the years, Northwest had worked hard to forget Gravity Falls, which is why she'd resented him so much for the first month of their partnership.

Northwest couldn't believe that a nobody who knew her for five minutes almost twenty years ago had dragged her back to the town she'd worked so hard to escape. Here, she would be forced to talk to her parents. Here, she would be isolated from real civilization. Here, she would have to investigate the supposed things that went bump in the night as her actual job, instead of helping people who actually needed it. Why had she been partnered with someone who didn't care about reality?

It hadn't been until one night five months ago when she finally understood. She'd gotten into a heated argument with him over whether hunting down a "vampire bat" was really worth their time and he'd broken down. They'd sat on the roof of the shack, and Pines had told her everything. He'd revealed that he'd picked her because he'd thought she'd be the "only one who could understand." Pines had opened up about the journal he carried and his sister's disappearance and why he could never speak to his great-uncle again, even though they were staying in his house.

Mabel was the reason he was obsessed. Mabel was the reason he had to be obsessed. Pines couldn't get her back unless he was constantly working at untangling the town's weirdness.

Northwest doesn't know if she buys it. She was raised in reality. She could come up so many logical reasons for his sister's disappearance, all more believable than sci-fi portals to other dimensions. Her mind just isn't tuned to accept the impossible.

And yet... with every monster that came their way, Northwest found herself wanting to believe a little more, and a little more, and a little more. Each time, she swore that the town wasn't getting to her. But maybe... he was.

Every time Pines started talking about the monster they were to hunt down that week, something about him changed. He became excited, and determined, and ready to see the experience through. His eyes lit up and his smile never dropped below satisfaction.

Northwest had never met someone so passionate about anything. He made her want to throw away all the rules she'd realized about reality.

Pines made her want to believe.

She's torn from her thoughts when he starts mumbling phrases aloud instead of mouthing them. Pines catches her staring.

"I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

Northwest nods. He smiles weakly.

"It must be really late. Sorry for keeping you up, we can stop."

"No, no, it's okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She returns his smile with a tight one of her own. Pines raises his eyebrows.

"In fact, I'll make coffee."

She stands up and heads for the kitchen.

"Northwest?"

She pauses.

"Thank you."

"No problem, Pines."

He never knows when to quit.

Then again, neither does she.


End file.
